Depletion
by artisticRadifyer
Summary: Jack has switched forces. What does this mean for his powers? It's unfinished, but I mean come on. They gave him the same six followers they were struggling to exist with.


**I'm positive this story hates me for reasons unknown. Besides being unfinished. It just feels like a too warm blanket.**

Jack was perched on the back of the sleigh, presumably to watch the kids until they were out of sight, when the vehicle suddenly jostled hard. The Big Four looked around, one noticing the movement had felt like when someone got on or off.

Sandy looked around, and saw Jack wasn't on the back. He checked his surroundings again, but Jack still wasn't there. The Sand Man poked the Easter Bunny, and, with attention acquired, symboled Jack's Snowflake.

Bunny looked for himself, and realizing Jack wasn't on as well, carefully climbed the back to see where he'd gone off to. The pooka took one look down and froze, but not because of heights. It was because:

"NORTH! TURN AROUND, JACK FELL OFF!"

North was startled enough to just follow the instructions, and belatedly said during the turn, "But, Jack can fly, no?"

"Well, 'e's not right now! He's FALLIN'!"

Tooth zipped by; she saw the sleigh wouldn't reach the falling spirit before he hit the ground. The warrior fairy caught the white-haired boy and met the sleigh halfway.

As the Tooth Fairy set down, she noticed something-"He's burning up." She felt his forehead just to be sure, "Yeah, he has a fever or something."

Bunny came over to feel as well and immediately drew back. "What do ya mean 'burnin' up?' 'e's freezin'!"

"I mean Jack is a LOT warmer than the other few times I've touched him. He HAS a FEVER!"

"Alrigh', Sheila, Ah believe ya."

North was about to ask a question when they all heard it.

Whimpering.

"Lay 'him down, Toothianna. Lemme look."

She did as she was told, and stood back by Sandy as Bunny checked the unconscious boy over.

A short moment went by where the whimpers stopped and the pooka started listing off injuries to himself, though the others could hear, "A big bonk on th' noggin...a bitten cheek...a few bruised ribs...a sprained wrist and broken finger...an ugly knee dislocation...some torn foot ligaments...no-"

"No...what?" North prompted after a long moment, turned around a bit to see.

"Jack doesn't 'ave a 'eartbeat," the others gasped, and the pooka continued, "but there's brain activity."

"Brain is last thing to go," stated North, he was facing back to the front.

"No, no. It's more than that. He barely has any heart muscle at all, like it hasn't been used in a VERY long time. In fact..." The one out of them best a healing spread his hands over the boys chest, and stayed quiet.

Tooth fidgeted, and finally gave in, "'In fact' what, Aster?"

"He's frozen. As in," Aster was getting on edge about something, "he's like a dead body put in a bloody freezer to be preserved. No, actu'lly, that's exactly what it is. 'is blood is frozen, 'e has weak lungs..." The healer began pulling on his ears hard, staring at Jack's unmoving chest, "Like they aren't even used half th' time!"

North asked it first, still looking at their flight path, "How is dat possible?"

"I don't know; it shouldn't BE possible!"

Sandy had watched, and then sat Tooth down by her arm pits when her knees gave out. Now though, he walked forward and, touching the Easter Bunny on the shoulder, showed a plus-sign and a line of checks on top of one another.

Aster shook his head, "Right." He returned his hands to the limp Jack, "Ah...Ah don' think 'e's dead. As I mentioned a tick ago, there's brain activity and even nerve activity. Though, his magic is greatly depleted, there's barely any in him."

"We shall help him when we get back to shop. Infirmary has plenty of room."

There was a few minutes of silence before Jack suddenly grunted. None of them had noticed her, but Baby Tooth was listening and was now trying to get him to wake. She was successful, Jack's eyes fluttered briefly open, and Sandy noticed they seemed a lot darker before his attention shifted.

Jack stiffened quickly, pat his hand, then dragged it across the floor of the sleigh. His eyebrows lowered, confusion evident, and sat up slowly without opening his eyes. Jack's hand came up to slide down his face, while his legs crossed and the other hand searched for something. When Jack couldn't find what he was looking for his eyes snapped open, and he looked around fully.

The others saw the spirit tense when he saw where he was, then his body tensed even further after he seemed to reassure himself of something and resumed looking around franticly. He apparently still hadn't found it, whatever it was, when he asked the group:

"Where's my staff?"

Everyone but Jack was taken aback by his voice, dry and broken sounding.

When no one moved, Jack shakily stood, carefully favoring his left without noticing, "Guys, where's my staff?"

Sandy turned and looked at where Jack had been perched earlier, and not seeing the wooden object, went up there to see the space easier. Jack started to follow, but the dream Guardian put out a hand, clearly saying: Stay. Jack did, stopped partially kneeling and crawling at the first seat to the back of the flying vehicle. The boy fidgeted, and it was obvious that if the Sand Man took too long, Jack would break the agreement and come after the mute man to look himself.

Bunny suddenly spoke, trying to draw Jack's attention away from the search, "How are yeh not screamin' bloody banshies right now? How are yeh even standin'?"

Jack glanced at him and Bunny saw his eyes were darker than what he'd thought they were supposed to be. "Wha'd ya mean? Why-" Jack swallowed, his voice was still really dry yet sounding like it was getting better, "Why would I be screaming?"

"Because-"

Jack suddenly fell, with a small, surprised yelp coming out of his mouth. He frowned at his right leg, the one he shifted his weight onto a second ago. The others watched as he flexed his toes, barely moved his foot up and down, and then moved his foot side to side. The side to side made him look up his leg to his knee, and his hands came up to probe about the joint, "Oh, I dislocated my knee. Hm..." His hands went to his foot, and did the same inspection there. "And tore ligaments," Jack sighed heavily, "forgot about that."

Sandy popped from the back of the sleigh then, waving the staff energetically with a picture of the sleigh and a small hook hanging from a bottom rung.

"Ah! Yes!" Jack didn't even get to think about getting up to go to his staff because the golden man quickly came down to the Winter Sprite. The new Guardian immediately had one hand holding it, the other running up and down the grooves and lingering on a jagged line in the middle. He stuck his cheek to the space just below the crook and thanked Sandy.

The Tooth Fairy had come back into focus when Jack fell and now noticed the line in the staff. "Jack," she pointed at the line, "what happened there?"

Jack looked at where she pointed, quirked his mouth down, and hesitated before answering: "Uh, Pitch did it."

"What? When?" North asked, having glanced back to see what the fairy had indicated.

"After..." Jack cleared his throat again, "I really need some water. After I ran off."

Bunny asked the next question, "What did he do?"

"He broke it." When he got some questioning looks, he continued, "I gave him my staff to get Baby Tooth back, then he went back on his word, broke it over his knee, and threw her and me in a crevice." Jack fingered his chest with one hand while his staff rested in his elbow, the other hand just fondly stroking Baby Tooth, and swallowed again, "She showed me my memories, I fixed my staff, and off we went back to Pitch's lair. Then Jamie's was after that."

"Wait, 'back?'" Bunny caught the word.

"...Yeah, went there for Easter, remember?"

Sandy waved a hand to Jack and showed a silhouette of Pitch's chest and up, right besides a house, a plus-sign, Jack's snowflake, an equal sign, and then a curly question mark. Sandy hadn't known what happened.

"I...heard a voice...my sister apparently, calling out my name. It lead me down to his lair, and when I had every chance to let the fairies go... I, I don't know why I couldn't; the voice wouldn't let me! I HAD to find it... I'm sorry, Tooth." Jack rushed out. He had to tell Sandy what truly happened in case the others tried to fill it in.

"No! No, no. It was not your fault! You had your memory box, that's where it came from right? The voice?" He nodded and she did too, "Yes! See, no one, and I mean absolutely no one, can resist the pull of memory. If you see, hear, touch, or taste anything, it will remind you of something. The only exception is amnesia, and even then that's either mental, old age, or doesn't last long." Tooth stood up and squeezed his shoulders, "So when they call out to you? Yeah, no, you had every excuse to go."

"Um, okay?" Jack didn't seem to know how to take that. Suddenly he frowned, "Is it warm to you guys?"

The Easter Bunny ignored the question and put in his other note, "Back to what I was goin' ta ask, Toothianna:" Tooth had the grace to look at least slightly sheepish, "Ya should be screamin' 'cause o' those injuries ya jus' found. Tha's what mos' people do."

"Oh, yeah. No, I'm C.I.P."

"Congenial Insensitivity t' Pain? How do ya figure that?"

"Um, college lectures and the symptoms?"

"Okay, then why's yer body frozen?"

Jack's eyes flew wide, and his breathing hitched, but he forced himself to answer the question. He had no real reason to lie, "I learned in my, my memories that when I became a spirit, I saved my sister from drowning in a lake with breaking ice. We-"

"Jack that's wonderful!" the Tooth Fairy exclaimed. "You saved your sister?"

"Yes."

"That does not answer question." North interjected, "Keep going Jack."

"We were ice skating, and I saved her; but I fell in. And...it was just after midday, so Manny wouldn't have been out till later."

"I don't think I've ever heard of spirits coming back from the dead," Tooth said quietly after it sunk in.

Sandy raised his hand. Then with his fingers, showed two, gestured to Jack and added a third finger.

"Including me you've seen three? Cool. I guess."

He then showed a science equation of sorts: A moon, a plus-sign, a leaf, and then an arrow to show: proceed to, a 'dead' face, a squiggle equal-sign, and then a smiling face.

"So, Man in the Moon and Mother Nature work together to make a dead person a live spirit?" Tooth conveyed.

Sand Man nodded then showed a number one, followed by a clock with multiple time hands. A number two came next, followed by a flower with petals around the stem where they had presumably fallen. The last was a number three, and Jack's snowflake.

"Father Time, Mistress Decay, and me. All three of us have something to do with nature." Jack tugged at the neckline of his hoodie and hummed, "Hm."

"Another thing t' notice: Tooth thought yeh had a fever. Do ya?" Aster pointed out.

"Fever?" Jack parroted. Tooth nodded, and Sandy, Bunny and Tooth watched as check put his hands up to his neck and face. A scowl showed he didn't like what he found, and he made a snowflake to lay on the back of his hand: it melted. "I don't normally melt snow, that'd be counter productive!"

"Has this happened befo'e?"

"Uh, I once followed Jamie down to Florida for a summer vacation. It was SO HOT I thought I was melting, then, it turned out I was? I don't know, maybe." Jack seemed to be struggling to stay awake and his voice was coming back around, "I'm still not sure if it was the leftover frost or me, but I left for colder waters before I could find out."

Jack's eyes fluttered as he finished, and he swayed while sitting. Bunny crouched down and laid a steadying hand on the injured boy's shoulder,

"Ya alright?"

It didn't seem like Jack would answer, but then he slurred out, "Y'u're righ'. 'm hot."

Bunny felt the boys chin with the pads of his paw and snapped to attention. Jack almost felt like a normal person's temperature.

Jack suddenly spoke up again, looking at the pooka, "Li'e, yeah, i' jus' got reaaaally hot."

Bunny caught sight of something in Jack's eyes and tilted Jack's head to look at them better. They're brown? The rabbit questioned the sprite, "What col'a were yer sista's eyes? And yer parents' if ya can remember."

"'rown..."

"North, we need ta get there. Yeste'day."

"What is wrong?" the driver asked.

"I think this is a bit more than a fever." Aster suddenly had an armful of Jack as the boy conked out again. He maneuvered himself onto a seat and held the boy steady. He decided he'd fix the dislocated knee as well, and pulled until it was back in it's proper place. The Winter Sprite's foot twitched and that was the only reaction they got.

As North picked up speed, Bunny noticed Jack' clothes were getting damp as well.

They were just heading out of the sleigh when a pile of leaves came toward them. They then swirled upwards in a fast, contained tornado and a woman stepped forward.

"Where is he?"

"Who, Seraphina?" North asked kindly, holding Jack's staff carefully in hand.

"Jack Frost, my American Winter Sprite."

Bunny shifted the light, limp body in his arms, carrying him bridal style. "'e's righ' 'ere. 'e's burning up."

"I sensed his Allegiance of Magic change and came."

"His what?" Tooth's confusion was on her face.

"Everyone gets their Magic from somewhere, yours from children's Belief, mine and my Sprites' from a section of Nature itself, and others have yet other means. His has changed from his American Winter Nature to-well I'd assume your children's Belief base? That is what I came to find out."

"Well, Jack took Oath maybe half hour ago. He has gotten six believers hand before hand."

"Oh my Moon!" Tooth almost shrieked. "Did you even hear yourself, North? Jack only has SIX BELIEVERS! We had built up PLENTY before each of us joined!"

"Is six that bad?" Mother Nature asked quietly.

"We almost died because we only had six, and we've experienced Belief Blackouts before! We need to get back to Jamie; closer proximity might help."

"'old up, Sheila. We can't all barge in 'is 'ouse. Th' boy is prob'bly asleep, he doesn' need a bunch o' spirits in 'is room, and Ah don' think Frosty 'ere c'n take that much more jarrin' transportation."

Mother Nature interjected, "I apologize, but I have other matters. I trust you may be able to help him." She sank back into the leaves she came from, then they flew up in the wind.

"Goodbye, Seraphina!" North called.

Sandy raised his hand, but no one saw.

"What else is there? Oh, Sweet Tooth, Jack, we are so sorry for doing this to you."

Sandy waved his hands again, and no still no one saw.

"Sure, Toothianna, we are sorry, but gettin' hysterical isn' gonna help us none!" Aster spoke calmly with his voice raised and woke Jack, though no one noticed but Sandy.

Sandy got the bleary boy's attention, and showed Jamie's face, an equal sign, and a male symbol-like on bathrooms. Then Sandy took the male sign and duplicated it to put one in a house shape, followed by an arrow, and then the other by a classic North Pole shape.

Jack blinked at the message and spoke up, though his voice was barely there, "San'y said...t' bring Jamie 'ere?"

The Easter Bunny stiffened, then looked down. Jack was awake, dark, glazed eyes rapidly blinking and chest heaving slowly again. It had felt weird to hold a limp body, but this was almost worse, almost. At least now it felt like an injured person and not a dead body.

Then Bunny realized the Winter Sprite had said something and asked, "What 'id ya say, Frosty?"

"San'y..." Jack said before he scrunched up his face hard and tried to curl up more in the pooka's hold. "'unny, ih hur's, s'lot... 'n' i's ho', why 's it 'ot...?"

"It'll be okay, Jackie," Aster wondered where that came from, "we'll get yeh feellin' better in no time." The pooka turned his voice to Santa Clause, "Nicholas, 'e needs ta cool down. Now."

"Yes, to Infirmary!"

Sandy grabbed Tooth's arm before she could dart off, making sure to grab above her elbow so any of his excess sand wouldn't be on her hands to wipe into her eyes and cause her to sleep. He signed the same thing he had to the sick Guardian and was glad the message got across.

"Good idea, Sandy. Come on, me and you can do this; they have Jack. Baby Tooth can tell them we've gone."

Sandy threw his hands up before she flew off again, and he showed her a snow globe.

"Yes, much faster. I agree."

•••

Jamie was excited.

The boy had been bouncing off the walls in glee when he finally woke, running up to his friends on the street while they waited for the bus to come. They shared his excitement, but some were uncertain that it had happened. Two of the boys voiced their concerns, but Jamie shot them down vehemently,

"No! You were all there! You saw it! They're real!"

"Jamie," Claude said, "even the city is completely free of evidence! There isn't any proof but some leftovers of a weird story we all had a dream about."

"That doesn't make any sort of sense;" Jamie deadpanned mockingly, "you're grabbing at threads."

Pippa sighed, "Guys, can we please stop arguing? It was a weird dream after a bunch of freaky nightmares. Get over it."

"I'm just glad it happened." Cupcake spoke up, "It was a good dream, regardless of its 'reality factor.'"

Monty broke in, "I label it as a four-point-three out of ten on a Jamie Scale."

Jamie was about to convince them again, but his mom called him. He came back to her, grabbing the lunch she thrust at him, and was about to turn around when he saw two of the being he knew were real.

Tooth and Sandy were right behind Jamie's mom. Tooth held her hand up in a 'shh' motion, and Sandy gently sprinkled sand over the mother's head. Jamie was right there when his mom tumbled forward, and helped Sandy carry her to her bed.

"Jamie, sweet one, we need you to come with us."

"Why? What's the matter? And why put mom to sleep?"

"Sandy is giving her a vague dream of her being sick and you taking care of her; at least for the day. If we need you longer, we'll figure it out."

Jamie saw how serious the Tooth Fairy was being, and decided that asking questions would probably not help on their precarious situation, "What do I do?"

Tooth nodded gratefully as Sandy came back over to her from finishing his dream, "We need you to stay by Jack."

Sandy threw down a snow globe, the portal opening, and beckoned Jamie through while Tooth followed right behind.

•••

When suddenly we popped up inside what I'd presume was Santa's Workshop, I was amazed.

Then Tooth grabbed my arm, and started heading down long hallways with me and Sandy behind her. I was reminded that Jack apparently needed me, and sped up a bit. We came to a large double door, one open, and that side alone was wide enough for two of me laying down and stretched out would only barely touch each other. The inside was a sudden barrage of a deep, comforting, forest green instead of sterile white that always made me nervous. This color scheme made it feel like another living room, until you see all the 'furniture.' The room itself was large, possibly able to fit a football field inside, and had different sized beds ranging from being as big as two cars close to the back of the room, and as small as an iPad near the front. The smaller the bed, the more bunks it had over it and beside it. I even noticed a second later as we passed it, that they were on a rotational belt.

I saw North and Bunny by a human sized one, and as we neared it I saw a mess of off-white hair in the bed. I pulled ahead of Tooth to go around to the other side of the bed and almost laughed at Jack's face.

His face itself was covered in a very thin sheet of rapidly-melting-frost, his expression one of bewildered embarrassment and cautious astonishment. North was wrapping the teen's thin arm, a finger already in a brace, while Bunny was wrapping the teen's right foot and ankle tightly.

I frowned at how tight Bunny was wrapping Jack's foot and asked, "Should it be wrapped that tightly?"

Bunny glanced up but kept going. North paused, looked up, gave me a once over, and asked Tooth, "Why is Jamie here?"

"Well, Jack can't be moved," Tooth started, "and Jamie is in elementary school anyway, missing a day won't do anything to his grades or something."

"Parents?"

"Jamie's mom is dreaming about being sick, and he would be 'taking care of her.'"

North hummed, thinking quickly, before nodding slowly and finishing on Jack's wrist, "Good, good. NICE thinking, both of you! Mind of two is always better!"

Jack eyed North carefully, "I think it's 'two minds work better than one?'"

Bunny spoke up after tying off Jack's foot, "Ignore 'im, mate. He neva corrects 'em." The Easter Bunny moved to Jack's wrist to check its wrappings, and began to unwrap them. He looked at Jamie, "I 'ave ta wrap 'im tight cause with Frosty 'ere not feelin' pain, he'll move without knowin' if 'e's makin' it worse. Betta ta not let 'im move at all."

"'Not feeling pain?'" he repeated.

"Yeah, I can't. You know how if you stepped on something sharp you would immediately get off because it hurts? I wouldn't notice it."

"What do you do if you..." I floundered for a something obvious, "I don't know, break your arm?"

"Uh..." Jack winced and looked away from me to fiddle with the wrappings on his wrist that Bunny finished, "I...didn't know why then, but since my body is essentially frozen and dead, I don't have blood flow. Meaning I don't have to cut off circulation or something or other like regular people do. I'd just do what Bunny said, keep it from moving to not damage it further, then let my magic fix it in like... I've had a broken arm with bone poking out get better in...eight days." Jack glanced over at me, then added, "-ish."

"I'm not sure what to say to that," I reply.

"You don' 'ave ta." Bunny was sitting in a weird chair and writing something down now. "'ere, Jack," the rabbit threw a small packet of paper at the Winter Sprite, "fill that out, an' we'll see what we gotta do b'sides Belief."

There was a brief silence where Jack was reading and the rest of us were just standing there.

"What kind of 'other' for 'eyesight' is:" Jack cleared his throat, "'gouged out, eaten, and reformed?'"

"Can tell you story later!" North boomed, "We need to get on helping Jack!"

"About that: Why am I here?" I asked.

Tooth answered me, "We figured closer proximity to his believers would help him, and he does know you the best..."

"I think it does 'elp though. Ah mean, one moment 'e's a normal human's temperature, the next 'e's back to bein' colder 'en I can handle f'r too long. Though it's still not the larrikin's regular snuff."

Snuff? Larrikin?

"What's a 'larrikin?'" Jack asked.

"It means idiot; or re'lly, harmless prankstah."

"Is that an accurate description, Jack?" I ask.

"Yeap. Though he might mean it in a slightly meaner way, given our history."

"What's y'all's history?"

"Well, Jamie, there's th' blizza'd o' '68..."

"I'll tell you again: I didn't do that!"

"Sure, Frostbite."

Jack groaned moodily and decided not to drag the subject further and everyone was back to being there for no explicit reason, excluding Jack.


End file.
